Click the links below to view the letters to USDA Sec. Tom Vilsack, and scroll down to read the farmer testimonials and learn more about their farms.

Federal Delegation | State Agencies | SFF Coalition

Living Heritage Farms

Dear Mr. Secretary:

My name is Jason Bishop and I am a 5th generation farmer located in Edwall Washington. Our family takes great pride and satisfaction in not only producing great food, but also stewarding the land to the best of our ability for future generations.

I am writing this letter of support requesting your consideration for assistance in funding Washington State’s Sustainable Farms and Fields program. I believe that this pilot program has the potential to demonstrate how focused incentives may be used to capture carbon from our atmosphere and put it back into the ground where plants and soil biology need it most.

Our family farm has been involved in numerous NCRS and FSA sustainability programs in the past. They have been helpful in assisting us in our transition to no-till practices and GPS precision mapping applications. On our own dime, we have also been experimenting with cover crops and livestock integration. As a farmer, trialing new practices in our area that are unproven by neighbors or the local university is dauting, time consuming, and full of risk.

I am excited for the Sustainable Farms and Fields program and hopeful that it is funded because it would help innovative farmers in our region accelerate our learning together. Experience comes at a cost. By coming along side farmers and helping us shoulder the burden with funding for these sustainable practices, it will encourage refinement of the practices and local transferable adoption of the practices.

Thank you for your consideration of the program. Thank you for assisting the advancement of regenerative and sustainable farming policies at the USDA. Thank you also for recognizing that agriculture can make a positive impact on climate.

Respectfully,

Jason Bishop
Living Heritage Farms
Edwall, WA
livingheritagefarms.com

Baird Orchards

Dear Mr. Secretary:

My name is Jim Baird and I own and manage 1,500 acres of row crop and orchard lands in the Columbia Basin Irrigation project of central Washington state.

I am writing to ask that you consider funding Washington State’s Sustainable Farms and Fields program as a pilot program to demonstrate how a voluntary incentive program will enable farmers to implement climate-smart farming practices.

I and some of the farmers in my area are now using cover crops in our crop rotations. More emphasis and stimulus in cover crops and No-til and/or Minimum tillage practices would be of great benefit to the farmers in this farming area.

Sustainable Farms and Fields Funding will facilitate the incorporation of these practices by making the cost of seeds more affordable, by introducing technical assistance and workshops exposing these practices to others, with the goal of making carbon sequestering farming practices more readily adaptable. Soil health is on everyone’s mind these days and I believe that more of these practices would be readily received.

Thank you for prioritizing climate-smart farming policies at USDA and for highlighting the importance of agriculture in addressing climate change.

Respectfully,

James M. Baird
Baird Orchards
Royal City, WA
bairdorchards.com